Chehalis ( ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in and the county seat of Lewis County,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, United States. The population was 7,439 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is located in the Chehalis valley and is split by

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

(I-5) and State Route 6. It is twinned with the bordering city of Centralia. The communities of Napavine and Newaukum lie directly south, with the town of Adna to the west. Due to the community's location on the Chehalis River, and the nearby confluences of the Newaukum and Skookumchuck rivers, the city has experienced several historic flooding events during its history. Incorporated in 1883, Chehalis was primarily a logging and railroad town, with a shift towards farming in the mid-20th century. The city has bolstered its economy in the 21st century with a focus in manufacturing and warehousing. Chehalis is home to the historic neighborhood of Claquato, the Chehalis–Centralia Airport, and the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds. The city has several distinct historical areas and boasts 11 locations on the list of

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, more than any other region in Lewis County. Several museums that highlight motorcycles, veterans and military history, and the Chehalis history of railroads are located within the city limits. Chehalis contains approximately of parks, most begun by land donations and are overseen by volunteer community efforts. The community is known locally for its annual summer event, ChehalisFest. The city anchors the beginning trailhead for the Willapa Hills Trail and accommodates riders during the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. Chehalis once was home to a championship

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

team and often welcomed barnstorming ballclubs and competitions featuring teams from Negro league baseball. In the 21st century, Chehalis initiated several charity, volunteer, and local government sponsored groups to revitalize the city, with focus on renovations to its historic downtown district, the upgrading of the community's transit sector, and increasing the education and graduation rate within the school district. Additional efforts of improvements were led via art programs and renovations to its parks.

Etymology

The name "Chehalis" is derived from , the name of principal village of the

Lower Chehalis people The Lower Chehalis ( ) are a Southwestern Coast Salish people indigenous to Washington state. Today, the Lower Chehalis do not maintain a distinct sovereign identity, although people of Lower Chehalis descent are enrolled in several federally ...

, located near what is now Westport, Washington. It translates to "place of sand" or "shifting sand" in English. It has also been spelled Atchixe-lish, Chachelis, Checalish, Chehaylis, Chickeelas, Chixeelis, Ebihalis, Tcheles, Tsehalish, and Tse-he-lis. Early non-native explorers of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

vocalized the words as "Chehalis" and proceeded to describe the original inhabitants as such. The community was originally known as Saunder's Bottom and as the town of Saundersville, named after Schuyler and Eliza Saunders on whose donation land claim it was founded when they settled on the land in 1850. Differing timelines and recognition of the name change to Chehalis exist. A founding member of the community and its postmaster, Obadiah B. McFadden, renamed the town as Chehalis in 1870. Another account claims officials for the Northern Pacific Railroad, in 1874, began to refer to the location as Chehalis but for unknown reasons. The naming was officially recognized by the state legislature on September 23, 1879. The Chehalis nomenclature is believed to denote its location to the Chehalis people and the Chehalis River. The meaning of the names of Saunder's Bottom and Chehalis were fitting for the growing town due to the muddy bottomland along the Chehalis River which had long vexed stagecoach travelers on the Washington arm of the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

between

Kalama Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili (1817 – September 20, 1870) was a Queen consort of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi alongside her husband, Kauikeaouli, who reigned as King Kamehameha III. She chose the baptismal name Hakaleleponi after the Biblical f ...

and New Market ( Tumwater).

Motto and nickname

An early motto for the city, "What Chehalis makes makes Chehalis" was initiated under Mayor John West in late-1926. As red roses had long been a symbol of the community, including the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) accredited Chehalis Municipal Rose Garden, the city adopted the red rose as an official community flower in 1955, leading to the nickname for Chehalis, "The Rose City", which was made official in 2000. The city's motto, "A Heritage to be Proud Of" was concurrently adopted. The community has been informally known as "The Mint City" due to I.P. Callison's mint plant and as "The Friendly City", nomenclature born from social symbolism connected to roses. An attempt to change the official moniker to "The Friendly City" in 2009 did not pass, but the city changed its motto to "Where Heart and History Shape Our Future".

History

Chehalis began as a settlement around a warehouse beside a railroad track in 1873, when the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

built northward from

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

. Northern Pacific's decision bypassed the town of Claquato, then the county seat. This allowed Chehalis, in 1874, to become the central location for Lewis County government. That same year, a store was added to the warehouse, and a courthouse and several houses were constructed. Chehalis was incorporated on November 23, 1883.

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksEnglish, and Scots-Irish descent arrived and settled in the neighboring valleys. In 1940, the chief local industries were dairying, poultry raising, fruit growing, milk condensing, fruit and vegetable packing, brick and tile manufacturing, coal mining, portable house manufacturing, and fern shipping. During World War II, Chehalis was home to a

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

manufacturing plant. The factory was responsible for producing wing parts for airplanes, particularly for

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

and

B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...

bombers. The plant, which received Boeing's excellence pennant, existed between 1943 and 1945 and was located in the Harry B. Quick building. Built in the mid-1920s, it has been owned by the Lewis County Public Utilities District since the early 1940s. A plaque, installed on the exterior of the building in 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the war's end, honors the workers of the Boeing manufactory, of which 70% were

Rosie the Riveter Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely n ...

s. The city, known for its flooding events, suffered damages and hardship during other natural disasters and severe weather events. A report in the aftermath of the 1949 Olympia earthquake listed that approximately 40% of local Chehalis businesses and homes were damaged, including a tally of over 1,300 chimneys. One Chehalis resident was reported as injured and the Green Hill School, which lost the use of four buildings, recorded $2 million in damages. The high school and the West Side School were destroyed; neither was rebuilt. Chehalis was also hit hard during the Hanukkah Eve windstorm of 2006, with the interstate closed south of the city due to fallen trees. A vessel in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, the gunboat USS ''Chehalis'' (PGM-94), was named in honor of the city.

Flooding

Due to Chehalis being located near several large rivers and resting in a valley, heavy rains and snowmelt has led the city to experience numerous historic flooding events, often recorded between November and February. Historical accounts and spiritual lessons passed down in the history of Native American people living in and around the Chehalis River tell of major floods in the basin. The first record of a flood, when the community known as Saundersville was settled, was in 1865. The first newspaper accounting of floods mention events in 1887 and 1897 that disrupted sawmill operations and river and railroad traffic. The 20th century recorded over two dozen notable flooding events in and around the Chehalis community. The earliest recordings of floods are from 1906, 1909, and 1910, with major floods in 1915 and 1919. Chehalis, which was submerged in a month-long rain event, broke flood records in 1933 and moderate floods followed later in the decade. A 1948 weather pattern, a widespread disaster for the state, led to flooding in Chehalis. Heavy rains in the early-to-mid 1950s bought moderate floodwaters. The Christmas flood of 1964 led to widespread floodwaters in 1965. A record-setting flood occurred in 1972, submerging the interstate for the first time in the city. The Chehalis River crested twice in January 1974, causing $10 million in losses. A major flood disaster developed in 1986 after of rainfall over several days that led to the submerging of the fairgrounds and a contamination spill at a closed industrial site near Millett Field. The highway was covered with floodwaters again during a major flood disaster 1990. A

100-year flood A 100-year flood, also called a 1% flood,Holmes, R.R., Jr., and Dinicola, K. (2010) ''100-Year flood–it's all about chance 'U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 106/ref> is a flood event at a level that is reached or exceeded onc ...

occurred in February 1996, with the Chehalis and Skookumchuck rivers setting flood stage records. A state of emergency was declared and I-5 was closed for four days. The city in the 21st century has had several floods of various levels including a record flood that closed the interstate in the town in December 2007 due to the Great Coastal Gale of 2007. Another major flood materialized over a year later in January 2009, immersing several regions within Chehalis, and I-5 and railroads were shut down once again. Less severe floods transpired during record daily rainfalls in 2010, 2012, and 2015. A stretch of I-5 between Chehalis and Centralia was closed for several hours after a major flood in January 2022.

Hate crimes and supremacy

Chehalis has not been immune to a history of hate crimes, racism, and white supremacy groups. An article written in the Chehalis Bee-Nugget newspaper from 1909 details a letter from a Black man who considered Chehalis a "white man's city" and would not move to the town. While the piece mentions that the people of Chehalis have not exhibited hostilities towards non-White people, the editorial does report that a Black family has never resided in the city while also acknowledging a lack of representation for citizens of Asian heritage. At the beginning of the 1910 Chehalis Gophers baseball season, the club and its ballplayers participated in a minstrel show, receiving positive reviews in a local paper. An "anti-Greek and Italian" movement existed in Chehalis around 1911 that demanded to abolish the employment of foreigners within the town. In 1924, a rally for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was held at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds and the estimated attendance was recorded between 20,000 and 30,000 members from around Washington. During the Great Depression, Chehalis and the surrounding cities and counties saw a rise in the participation of "Silver Shirts", a group that followed similar aspects to the Nazi movement of the era. In a

Life magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

article from March 1939, the publication reported regarding hate groups and said Chehalis had a hate group leader in it, purportedly a local insurance man. A trio of female high school students wrote to the magazine, believing that the feature "did not accurately depict the feelings of local citizens" just the insurance man and his followers, and a follow-up photo article from Life in May showcased the city's actual more varied and "American ideals" atmosphere which tended to more highlight inclusion, tolerance and diversity. It was noted that the leader of that fascist group had left town after the original story had published. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the emergence of the

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and ...

(JBS), which opposed the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, began to circulate in and around the community, though much of the group’s noted activity occurred outside Chehalis with the group opening a bookstore in Centralia. Active and open participation from county residents in either the KKK or the JBS began to wane in the 1970s and 1980s, and the last activity of either group was recorded as taking place at the end of the century. The city, due to its early history and present-day lack of a Black population, was listed as a

sundown town Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States. They were towns that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combinati ...

though there is no evidence the city ever had sundown policies. Residents in the city in more recent years have protested in favor of the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement, holding two demonstrations in 2020 at the Lewis County Courthouse after the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

. The second event was attended by approximately 300 people who knelt for 8 minutes 46 seconds in protest against

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

. Notwithstanding a brief interruption, the assembly remained peaceful. A rise in hate crimes against LGBTQ people in the 21st century also affected Chehalis, usually perpetrated or led by non-Chehalis residents. In the 2020s, a billboard in Chehalis supporting LGBTQ and racial equality movements was vandalized. And a drag show held in June 2023 at the Chehalis Theater was a site of controversy when a political fundraiser that referred to drag performers as "groomers" was hosted nearby without theater approval by the Lewis County GOP, headed by a non-Chehalis resident, and timed so as to coincide with the drag show in the Chehalis Theater and a similarly protested

Pride Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

event that had been held in Centralia earlier that day. The GOP’s actions were shortly after condemned by local leaders. A few weeks later, a single-evening hate crime act occurred that targeted LGBTQ charities and symbols within various locations of the city. The Chehalis Friendship Fence was vandalized during the hate crime attack. The fence was repainted days later through a volunteer effort. The fence was targeted again in February 2024 after a group of three people, all with ties to a variety of hate groups, as well as previous hate crime acts, splashed the artwork with black paint. The perpetrators, who were not from Chehalis, were chased down by a local resident and caught; fellow neighbors were able to wipe the paint off before it dried but the damages were severe enough that parts of the local attraction needed to be repainted. The trio were found guilty of misdemeanor malicious mischief but were acquitted by jury on hate crime charges.

Claquato

As translated from the Chehalis Native American language, Claquato means "high prairie" or "high land". The town began as a settlement in 1853 by Lewis Hawkins Davis, who originally named the area Davis Prairie. The community grew quickly to include Claquato Church, a cemetery, hotels, and several stores and was, for a time, the largest populated town between the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

and Olympia. Davis donated land for the construction of a courthouse and by 1862 the town became the county seat for Lewis County until that designation was transferred to Chehalis in 1874. A

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

was built and used in the community during an 1855-1856 war between settlers and Native Americans, sheltering the founding family of Chehalis during the conflict. Claquato is no longer a recognized town or municipality, and is considered a neighborhood outside the Chehalis city limits. While described as a ghost town as it was officially vacated in 1902, the area has been populated since its inception.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water. The city rests in a valley bordered by foothills of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

to the east and the Willapa Hills to the west. Chehalis straddles

at a point almost exactly halfway between

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington and

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. The historic downtown and most of the city's amenities lie on the east side of the

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

, nestled at the base of a small range of forested hills. On the west side of the freeway are parks, farms, a few subdivisions developed in the hills to the west, and a centralized shopping district, the Twin City Town Center. The Chehalis–Centralia Airport is located immediately west of the freeway towards the northern end of the city. From numerous vantage points in the city and the Willapa Hills, there are views of Boistfort Peak and the three major volcanic mountains of the Cascades,

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens, depending on weather conditions. The Chehalis River winds its way through the valley in which the city resides, and is joined by a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

, the Newaukum River. This confluence of waters, along with the intersections of tributaries and railroads within Chehalis, helped the city become known as "The Maple Leaf City". Both the Chehalis and Newaukum rivers are prone to flooding during periods of abnormally heavy or persistent rain, and the lowlands from the freeway westward are particularly susceptible to inundation. Near the Port of Chehalis is Dillenbaugh Creek, a watershed encompassing over .

Climate

This region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C). According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Chehalis has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Weather events and records

The city was hit with 100 mph winds gusts during the

Columbus Day storm of 1962 The Columbus Day storm of 1962 (also known as the big blow of 1962, and originally in Canada as Typhoon Freda) was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on Octobe ...

. The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 107.0 °F (41.7 °C) in July 2009. Chehalis matched that record high on June 28, 2021, while surpassing other daily and monthly heat records for the month during the

2021 Western North America heat wave The 2021 Western North America heat wave was an extreme heat wave that affected much of Western North America from late June through mid-July 2021. The heat wave affected Northern California, Idaho, Western Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in ...

Demographics

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 7,259 people, 2,868 households, and 1,655 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 3,131 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.7%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.3% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 0.2%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 5.7% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 11.6% of the population. There were 2,868 households, of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.3% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 3.02. The median age in the city was 33.5 years. 24.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 12.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.9% were from 25 to 44; 22.6% were from 45 to 64; and 14.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.2% male and 49.8% female.

2000 census

As of the 2000 census, there were 7,057 people, 2,671 households, and 1,696 families residing in the city. The

was 1,259.0 people per square mile (485.7/km²). There were 2,871 housing units at an average density of 512.2 per square mile (197.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.56%

, 1.35%

, 1.46% Native American, 1.20% Asian, 0.24%

, 3.95% from other races, and 2.24% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 7.91% of the population. 18.4% were of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, 11.0% English, 11.0% American and 8.4% Irish ancestry. There were 2,671 households, out of which 33.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were

living together, 14.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 30.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.06. In the city, the population was spread out, with 29.2% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 18.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $33,482, and the median income for a family was $41,387. Males had a median income of $32,289 versus $24,414 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $15,944. About 16.0% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 27.6% of those under age 18 and 8.9% of those age 65 or over.

Homelessness

The Point In Time Count (PTC) is a county

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

that is required by law to count the number of the population experiencing

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

. Mandated by the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and u ...

(HUD) since 2003, the annual PTC tracks the number of individuals and families experiencing homelessness on a specified date and is usually held in January. It is organized locally with data transmitted to state and federal agencies. Students and children under the age of 18 who are described as, "in an overnight accommodation insecure situation", are not officially recorded as part of the PTC. However, the city of Chehalis had a count in 2017 reporting 130 students, and an incomplete count the following year of 136, who met the qualifications to be listed as homeless.

Economy

After the loss of a large pharmaceutical plant in 1952, the Chehalis community organized a group named "Adventure in Cooperation" which led to the beginnings of a commission that created the Chehalis Industrial Park later that decade. The economic area began when a new rail line, built by a group of local volunteers known as the " Gandy Dancers", was connected to the grounds. The

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

, located south of the city district near the interstate, leases land that it purchases to corporations and businesses. The first tenant was a $1.0 million Goodyear Tire plant that opened in 1957. The Port of Chehalis was officially established in September 1986 and was one of the last ports created in the state. The port was enacted by a public vote in Lewis County, which also developed a port district in the city. The agency oversees the Chehalis Industrial Park and the port is part of the South Puget Sound Foreign Trade Zone. Food processing, which included canned or frozen items, has been a long-term economic sector of Chehalis, expanding in importance during the 1950s after the construction of U.S. Route 12 and Interstate 5. Callison's, formally known as I.P. Callison's & Sons, was founded in the city in 1903. The company originally processed cascara bark, used as a laxative, and shipped a variety of flora for use in flower arrangements. Callison's expanded to produce peppermint in the 1940s, spearmint in 1952, and eventually

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the ...

s, including the production of

foxglove ''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. ''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in sha ...

for medicinal use. The company headquarters and exporting components were moved to Lacey but the manufacturing plant remains in Chehalis. The company produces mint used in the production of candies at Chehalis Mints, a local confectioner that began in 1994. The Lewis County Mall, situated south of the Lewis County Fairgrounds, was built in 1972. The mall was home to national chains and major retailers but in 1999, JC Penney's departed the venue and other businesses followed soon thereafter due in part to the growth of other shopping centers in the local area.

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

was the last nationwide company to leave. In the 2000s, the 10-screen Midway Cinema was established in the building. , the mall is home to smaller, regional businesses and plans include a renovation of the center for storage, apartment buildings, and restaurants. Timber, once an important economic component of the city, began increasing in the 2000s and the city became a warehousing center due to its access to the interstate and its location between Portland and Seattle. Beginning in the 2010s, the city embarked on increasing its economic diversity by creating an

auto row An auto row or auto mall is a business cluster with multiple car dealerships in a single neighborhood or road. Auto rows are distinct from car supermarkets which are a single, large dealership. Economics Auto rows, like mall food courts, are an ...

for passenger vehicle dealerships at the Twin City Town Center district. Due in part to renovations of the Recreation Park Complex, and a subsequent growth in attendance for sports events, the community entered a growth phase in the

hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Sector ...

Arts and culture

Art

Based on a plan approved by the city council in 2009, the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team (CCRT) was formed and implemented artistic improvements as part of long term revitalization project for downtown Chehalis. With funds provided by CCRT via community donations and various city, county, and state programs, local artists and business owners have produced artworks on utility boxes, trash can lids, and benches, along with additional murals and building façade renovations in the downtown and surrounding business districts. A rainbow painted fence, known as the Chehalis Friendship Fence, is located in the city's Pennsylvania-Westside district near Westside Park. It was first created in 2020 and is a show of support of

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

people and their rights. Sculptures located in Chehalis include ''The Guardian'', a bronze work situated at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center. Created to honor local police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, the artwork depicts a little girl along with an officer and a

police dog A police dog, also known as a K-9 (phonemic abbreviation of canine), is a dog that is trained to assist police and other law enforcement officers. Their duties may include searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing people, findin ...

. Four statues, portraying young children in various states of play, are located at the Recreation Park Complex. A bronze sculpture of a little girl sitting on a bench reading a book is located at the Vernetta Smith Timberland Library. The book was stolen but replaced in 2021. A sculpture containing multiple

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

columns is located at a commercial development near the I-5 exchange on Main Street known as Liberty Plaza. Created to honor American military veterans, the piece is part of a fountain. The artwork was dedicated in 2009 and features a column standing in height, at the time thought to be the tallest such type in the world. Chehalis is part of the ARTrails of Southwest Washington initiative. The cooperative, begun in 2003, showcases local artists, art studios and galleries throughout the region, and holds an annual autumnal studio tour that incorporates events in smaller towns within Lewis County. The Lewis County Historical Museum has hosted, since 2015, a permanent ARTrails gallery.

Charitable groups

Among the earliest women's groups in Washington state, the St. Helen's Club of Chehalis was founded on February 5, 1895. The literary organization, a member of the

General Federation of Women's Clubs The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of approximately 2,300 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Community Serv ...

(GFWC) since 1896, has advocated for the importance of "literature, arts, science and vital issues of the day", a motto stretching back to the founding days of the club. The St. Helen's Club has invested in lobbying efforts focusing on issues of betterment for the state but mainly provides scholarships for high school and college women, including foreign-born students, attending colleges in the state. During the group's history, the women organized petitions in the early 1900s to demand clean streets and organized livestock drives within Chehalis, opened a women's rest stop in downtown, and planted what was referred to as "a mile of trees" at the fairgrounds. The group led restoration endeavors of the John R. Jackson House at the Jackson House State Park Heritage Site in 1915. As part of a state-wide GFWC initiative, the St. Helen's Club helped to raise funds to purchase land for the Federation Forest State Park near Enumclaw, Washington during the late 1920s.

Cuisine

In 2021, two restaurants in the city, ''Once Upon A Thyme'', a luncheon diner, and ''Mackinaw's'', which caters to fine dining, were featured in back-to-back episodes of the television show,

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that has aired on the Food Network since April 23, 2007. It is hosted by Guy Fieri, and in ...

. Mackinaw's, which was located at the Hotel Washington, was subjected to fines, loss of a liquor license, and eventual closure for failing to adhere to

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

protocols for restaurants. Another restaurant, ''Spiffy's'', continued indoor dining in 2020 during early lockdown laws amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The establishment was levied with $400,000 in fines and the restaurant, which existed for 50 years, shut down the following year.

Festivals and events

The city hosts the Chehalis Farmers Market between June and October in the historic downtown core on Boistfort Street. Held every year since 2005, the market is part of a larger Lewis County farmers market initiative. It is opened on Tuesday afternoons with a once-a-month Saturday opening begun during the 20th anniversary year of the market. , the Chehalis Farmers Market is the only such type within a radius. Locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as prepared food and art wares from the area, are often the leading focus of the market. The history of farmers markets in the city date to 1928, when the community began its first public market at the Chehalis municipal auditorium; the market shifted to Boistfort Street later that year due to lack of shoppers. An annual, multi-day "ChehalisFest" is usually held at the end of July. Once titled, "Krazy Days", the early festival included a "saucer drop" of candy and gift-filled cardboard

flying saucers A flying saucer, or flying disc, is a purported type of disc-shaped unidentified flying object (UFO). The term was coined in 1947 by the United States (US) news media for the objects pilot Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, Kenneth Arnold claimed fl ...

that celebrated the

1947 flying disc craze A rash of unidentified flying object reports in the United States were publicized in June and July1947. The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, story of witnessing di ...

. The event is hosted by Experience Chehalis (previously the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team), and is centrally located in the historic downtown district but expands to local tourist locations, including the Chehalis-Centralia Airport and Veterans Memorial Museum. Food, music, child activities, art walks, sidewalk sales, and car shows are often the highlights of the festivities. A mid-summer Music in the Park free concert series takes place annually at Recreation Park. The event is typically held on three consecutive Fridays, with a different performer each evening. Based on local music demographics, country singers and

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. N ...

s often headline the series. Chehalis borders the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, which hosts an annual

state fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in t ...

, usually in August. The Lewis County Fair first took place in the city in 1891 and continued to do so until 1909 when the fairgrounds began hosting the event after the site was constructed. In commemoration of the

Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that he estimated to be at least . This was the first post-World War II sighting in the ...

and the city's connection to the event, the downtown district hosts the "Chehalis Flying Saucer Party" which first began in 2019. The festival revived the Krazy Day's tradition of the "saucer drop" and is usually a two-day, September celebration. It includes symposiums, a parade, musical performances, and UFO-themed activities in the city, with several exhibits about the sighting displayed at the Lewis County Historical Museum. In 2023, a

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

competition, the "Northwest Flying Saucer Film Fest", was introduced to the event. Chehalis's Santa Parade takes place in early December. A theme is chosen every year and local residents are selected as grand marshals as recognition for their community service. The route courses thru the historic downtown district and immediate business core with floats and school marching bands the prime spotlight of the event. Held almost continuously since the 1940s, the parade celebrated 70 years in 2019.

Historic buildings and sites

The city began a historical commission in the 1980s to honor and recognize buildings in Chehalis for their historical importance as well as preservation efforts. Given the moniker, the Chehalis Historic Preservation Commission, the committee's largest listing was in 2005 with 37 homes recognized; all were located in NRHP districts in the community. Each home or building is given a plaque that lists the original construction date, and may contain dates and names regarding conservation efforts. The commission, in the mid-2000s, was responsible for the beginnings of restoration efforts in the downtown district, specifically programs to improve and revitalize building façades. The Chehalis Downtown Historic District was honored with placement on the

(NRHP) in 1997, notably for its

Colonial Revival architecture The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

. Two other NRHP district locations registered within Chehalis include the Hillside Historic District and the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District. NRHP-listed buildings include the Chehalis Post Office, the Lewis County Courthouse, the county museum once known as the Burlington Northern Depot, the 1920s St. Helens Hotel, and the Troop 373 and 7373 Scout Lodge. The homes of John R. Jackson, O.B. McFadden, and O.K. Palmer are also listed with the NRHP. Other historical buildings include the Chehalis Theater, originally known as the Pix Theater when it was opened in 1938, but renamed in 1954. The building, constructed in 1923, was first home to a Ford car dealership. Across from the courthouse sits the Judge Seymour White House, a Victorian house built in 1904 that was planned for demolition in 1986 after it was deemed a public nuisance. A public outcry saved the home. Given the nickname, "House of Ill Repute", it once was used as a

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

. The 1889 Washington Hotel is situated in the downtown district and was restored by a local family in 1997 following a destructive fire. It served as a movie house and vaudeville theater, known as the

Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts. The band comprises John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), Mike Portnoy (drums), James LaBrie (vocals) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards). Dream Theat ...

, and once hosted the Vintage Motorcycle Museum. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ezra Meeker's journey on the

, the city, by way of the Lewis County Historical Society, installed an historical marker at city hall. As part of a promise from towns along Meeker's trip to erect markers to honor the trail, Chehalis was one of the last areas to fulfill the obligation. Another marker was subsequently placed at Claquato Church in the nearby neighborhood of Claquato, the oldest continuously used church in Washington state. The Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library, built in 2008 as a replacement of the city's 1910 Carnegie library, is operated by the Timberland Regional Library and named in honor of the mother of former Chehalis resident, Orin Smith.

Tourism

Chehalis is home to the Veteran's Memorial Museum which was originally begun in 1995 and opened in Centralia in 1997. The museum contains a volumetric library of military history, and visitors can participate in direct interactions with visiting United States war veterans as well as browse thru a 9,000 square foot gallery. The site is home to the mast of the USS Nicholas (DD-449), and the grounds exhibit both a complete

Bell AH-1 Cobra The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a single-engined attack helicopter developed and manufactured by the American rotorcraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter. A member of the prolific Huey family, the AH-1 is also referred to as the HueyCobra or Snake. The ...

helicopter and a

Republic F-105 Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vietnam War. It ...

fighter-bomber. The museum has hosted an annual, late-summer "Rust or Shine Car Show and Music Festival" since 2015, becoming the biggest automobile show in the county. In cooperation with other organizations, the museum sponsors an annual

American Civil War reenactment American Civil War reenactment is an effort to recreate the appearance of a particular battle or other event associated with the American Civil War by hobbyists known (in the United States) as Civil War reenactors, or Living history, living histo ...

in the city. The Chehalis-Centralia Railroad Museum (CCRM) is located south of the veteran's museum and hosts the Chehalis–Centralia Railroad which offers an passenger train ride that traverses through the Twin City corridor and the Chehalis River Valley. The train, a 1916 Baldwin Locomotive Engine No. 15 from the Cowlitz, Chehalis & Cascade Railway, was once a display located at Recreation Park and was restored in the mid-1980s. A

swap meet A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell Used good, previously owned (secondhand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of ...

mall, Yard Birds, is a local landmark known for its large, metal and wood sculpture of a black bird. The mall was permanently closed in 2022 and threatened to be condemned due to code compliance and safety issues but the order was lifted at the end of the year. , the attraction still remains. McKinley Stump - Ezra Meeker 01

Located at the Lewis County Historical Museum is the McKinley Stump, a replica of a tall remnant of a Douglas fir cut down in 1901 near Pe Ell. Dated between 360 and 700 years old, it was meant to be used as a speech pedestal for President William McKinley, but the event was cancelled.

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

used it two years later and William H. Taft employed the stump as a podium in 1907. The artifact was originally placed in downtown under a pagoda, but was moved to the railroad depot and then to Recreation Park after damages due to arson in the late 1940s. After an infestation of carpenter ants and subsequent rot, the stump was removed from the park in 2007 and a replica stump, cut from Tenino, was installed at the museum in 2008 with a restored pagoda and a display of an undamaged slab of the original stump.

Sports

Bicycling is a popular sport in Chehalis, hosting along with other towns on the State Route 6 corridor an annual "Ride The Willapa" bike ride that raises money for the Willapa Hills Trail. The Lewis County Historic Bike Ride, an annual fundraising event since the early 1990s, features ride options that vary from easy to advanced, and traverses through the city. The bike ride is used by Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) participants as a practice run. Chehalis is included as part of the route for the STP which traverses around the airport and winds through downtown and connected neighborhood districts. Riders of the STP will overnight in the city as an overflow option to Centralia. Klein Bicycle Corporation, connected to the city during its early years of production, sponsored the three-stage Klein Classic in the 1990s. A bicycle event for local residents, known as the Centralia to Chehalis Bike Ride, was held continuously from the late 20th century into the

3rd millennium In contemporary history, the third millennium is the current millennium in the ''Anno Domini'' or Common Era, under the Gregorian calendar. It began on 1 January 2001 ( MMI) and will end on 31 December 3000 ( MMM), spanning the 21st to 30th ...

. The "C to C" route meandered from George Washington Park in Centralia, to around the airport, and finishing at Recreation Park after traversing through several residential neighborhoods. Chehalis's Millet Field used to host

, including such teams as the Gophers, Proteges, and Farmers; the 1912 Chehalis Farmer's team was awarded the league championship. The field accommodated semi-pro baseball and football from the turn of the 20th century into the 1970s. Several

Negro League The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

games were played in the town. The city was granted an expansion team by the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

for the 2008-2009 season. Known as the Washington Raptors, the organization merged with the Fresno Rebels by the middle of the first season; the team became based out of California. The Chehalis team originally participated in the

International Basketball League The International Basketball League (IBL) was a semi-professional men's basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States. In 2010 the Albany Legends became the first team in the Northeastern United States to join. The ...

by 2006 and were known as the Lewis County Raptors. Two parks within the city limits, Recreation and Stan Hedwall Parks, are used for a variety of W.F. West High School sports competitions and for tournaments involving high schools within Lewis County. The high school hosted a preseason exhibition game between the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

and the Seattle SuperSonics in 1970, marking the beginning of the I-5 Rivalry.

Parks and recreation

The city has several parks, many of which are based on land donated by Chehalis residents. Money raised to build, maintain, or upgrade the area's park system has long been done by community fundraising efforts. The largest park, the Recreation Park Complex, is located in Chehalis's South Market district and contains four separate units. The Gail and Carolyn Shaw Aquatics Center' opened in August 2014 and it replaced the original 1959 Chehalis Community Pool. The Chet and Henrietta Rhodes Spray Park, completed in 2007, adjoins the aquatic center, geared mostly for young children and people with disabilities. Recreation Park is the largest of the area, and is home to four softball and youth baseball fields, picnic areas, paved walking paths, and a community center and kitchen. It was recently rebuilt in 2020 along with the abutting Penny Playground, a fenced play area geared for children. The playground's name comes from the donation drives used to help fund the building of the park in 1993. Two additional parks are furnished for athletics and organized sports. Stan Hedwall Park straddles the Newaukum River with 200 acres of ball fields, RV parking, trails, and open and forested areas. Millett Field was formerly home to a semi-pro baseball team in the early 20th century, and regularly used for sports since it opened in 1898 and developed in 1908. A basketball court and a playground area, both created by local charitable acts in the early 2000s, are the focus of the park. Several parks organized and built for leisure and family activities are dispersed within the city limits. Westside Park, located in the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District, contains basketball courts, a playground, and picnic areas. Lintott-Alexander Park, located on land that was donated in the early 20th century by a Chehalis family, is a park that was restored after a monetary contribution from a former community resident in 2004. A pair of the oldest recreational areas in the city, John Dobson and McFadden Parks, are a combined and are located in the Hillside District on Park Hill. A shared trail, the Dobson-McFadden, bridges the parks and leads to open views to much of Chehalis, including downtown, and the Newaukum River valley. Several Chehalis parks contain walking paths and trails but there are three separate trails of note. The Airport Levee Trail is a mixed paved-gravel trail that loops for up to and is situated between farm land and the Chehalis-Centralia Airport. It connects with the nearby Airport Road Trail, a paved, mixed-use trail that parallels

for ; it is part of long-term plan to link the recreational areas between the Twin Cities. The Willapa Hills Trail stretches from Chehalis to

South Bend, Washington South Bend is a city in and the county seat of Pacific County, Washington, Pacific County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 1,746 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is widely-known for its ...

. Built over a late 19th century railroad, it is now a mix of paving and compact gravel and is open to hikers, bicyclists, and horse riding.

Environment and ecology

The city owns and operates the Chehalis Poplar Tree Farm located east of Claquato on State Route 6. The 11-unit, site grows nine hybrid varieties of poplar and the trees are harvested on a rotating basis in sectioned units every 8 to 10 years. The lumber is sold to produce paper. The farm is part of Chehalis' water treatment program. Beginning in 2008, Class 1

wastewater Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of do ...

, which had been commonly discharged into the Chehalis River, has been used to hydrate the poplar fields through the use of irrigation pipes. Reclaimed and treated water not absorbed by the poplars recharges the local aquifer. The farm was informally known as the "Chehalis Poplar Tree Plantation" and was renamed to its current moniker in 2021 due to local action requesting the removal of the word "plantation" as the term was considered objectionable. The area is populated by cascara, defined as a bush or tree depending on its size. The main harvesting of the plant is for its bark, commonly used as a laxative. Origins of a fungal disease, known as

dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods or cornels, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous ...

anthracnose A plant canker is a small area of dead tissue, which grows slowly, often over years. Some cankers are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately lethal and therefore can have major economic implications for agriculture and horticultur ...

, was first recorded in approximately 1977 in Chehalis. The disease spread to the East Coast and

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

regions of the United States. The Chehalis River and Dillenbaugh Creek watersheds in the city are home to migrating

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon (or "silvers") and is often ...

and the ecosystems support beaver and deer. A

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

area was donated to Chehalis in 1994 by the owner of Yardbirds. Located at the northern city limit at Salzer Creek on National Avenue, Chehalis allows the parcel to be used as an improvement offset by businesses in exchange for companies building in other wetland areas in the community. The city contains two

Superfund sites Superfund sites are Pollution, polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. Sites include landfills, mines, manufacturing facilities, processing plants where toxic waste h ...

. A major flood in 1986 led to a contamination cleanup at a closed industrial site, known as American Crossarm and Conduit, near Millett Field. Approximately of a mixture of creosote and diesel fuel, as well as cancer-causing chemicals such as dioxins and

pentachlorophenol Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is an organochlorine compound used as a pesticide and a disinfectant. First produced in the 1930s, it is marketed under many trade names. It can be found as pure PCP, or as the sodium salt of PCP, the latter of which disso ...

used in the treatment of lumber, spread into the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the Dillenbaugh Creek watershed. The $9.5 million hazardous cleanup was undertaken by the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

(EPA) and the area was listed in 1988 as a federal superfund site; the remediation was not completed until 1996. The Hamilton/Labree Roads Groundwater Contamination site is an ongoing remediation project. Split into two units, the more than contaminated area is located south of the city at Berwick Creek. The concerns include the dumping of PERC and buried drums of other hazardous chemicals which has affected the soil and water system in the area. First noticed in 1993, an initial cleanup, referred to as "interim", began in 2020 and was completed in 2024. Continued monitoring of the site will evaluate if further mitigation will be required.

Government and politics

Chehalis has a council–manager system of government that consists of an elected

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

and an appointed

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city in the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...

. The city council has seven members, of which three come from

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

seats, and selects a ceremonial

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

from its members. The council was formed in November 1975 after a city-wide vote to change from a three-person commission to a seven-member board. The inaugural council included the election of the first woman mayor of Chehalis, Viviane Roewe. The city is located in District 1 of Lewis County and as of March 2021, represented by County Commissioner Sean Swope.

Politics

Chehalis historically leans to the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

, but less than Lewis County as a whole. Third parties receiving votes in the 2016 and 2020 election were the Libertarian Party and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

, and there were 15 votes for Write-in candidates. The 2016 election also included votes for the Constitution Party.

Crime and criminal justice

The Green Hill School, the state's only maximum security penitentiary for youths, is located in the South Market district. The city is also home to the Lewis County Jail, situated across from the Lewis County Courthouse in the government district.

Education

The Chehalis School District (CSD) provides public education to Chehalis students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. Elementary students attend James W. Lintott Elementary from pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade, moving to Orin C. Smith Elementary to complete third to 5th grade. Chehalis Middle School, built in 1989, hosts grades 6th thru 8th. W.F. West High School, opened in 1951, provides a completion of primary education from 9th to 12th grades. Both elementary schools were built concurrent in 2018 and fully opened in 2019. They replaced the previous primary schools of Cascade (built 1922), R.E.Bennet (opened in 1928), and Olympic (built 1960). The city also provides schooling for rehabilitating juvenile males at Green Hill School, with options for students to obtain a high school or general equivalency diploma (GED), vocational training, and college prep courses, with additional opportunities to earn an associate or bachelor degree via a joint partnership with Centralia College.

Media

Film and television

Several movies have been filmed in and around Chehalis, including '' Captain Fantastic'', and the independent film ''Maysville''. Diverse documentaries filmed in the city include the environmental feature about the Chehalis river basin, ''Chehalis : A Watershed Moment'', and the movie, ''Skinny and Fatty: The Story of Yard Birds'', a reflection on a local market attraction.

Newspapers

The earliest recorded newspaper published in Chehalis was in 1883, the ''Lewis County Nugget'', with the ''Lewis County Bee'' forming a year later. Between 1887 and 1888, both publications dropped the county title and became the ''Chehalis Bee'' and the ''Chehalis Nugget''. The city was also home to ''The People's Advocate'' beginning in 1892, providing three competing papers in Chehalis until the ''Bee'' and ''Nugget'' merged in 1898 to become ''The Chehalis Bee-Nugget''. The ''Advocate'' became the ''Lewis County Advocate'' in 1903. The ''Bee-Nugget'' survived until 1938 when it joined with the ''Lewis County Advocate'' to become ''The Chehalis Advocate''. With the exception of "The Scoop", a brief upstart of a daily publication in the 1950s, the merger left Chehalis with one surviving news publication produced in the city. ''The Chehalis Advocate'', due to a loss of ad revenue and rising costs, folded in 1963. A weekly newspaper known as The Weekly News, and then as the Chehalis Times, was begun in 1979 but folded two years later. Since then, Chehalis has been without a city-produced newspaper and local news reports for the residents of Chehalis are provided by '' The Chronicle'', a

weekly newspaper Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...

published in Centralia. A ghost sign for the Chehalis Bee-Nugget was found in 2009, and subsequently preserved, during a renovation of Chehalis's historic St. Helens Theater.

Radio

The Chehalis area has two licensed FM radio stations, KACS - 90.5 FM, which broadcasts a Christian format, and KMNT - 104.3 FM, providing

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

to the community. Additional stations include Centralia College owned KCED - 91.3 FM, which transmits

Alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

programming, and the

Adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...

radio broadcaster KITI-FM - 95.1 FM, based in Winlock. Centralia based AM radio station, KELA 1470 is a mixed sports and talk broadcaster.

Infrastructure

Flood control

Lewis County and various other regional governments, in association with environmental groups, scientists, and local citizens, organized a partnership in the early 2010s named the Chehalis Basin Strategy to propose and research a combination of plans along the Chehalis River to mitigate flooding and to restore aquatic habitat for local

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...

. The proposal outlines several flood control reduction measures, with downstream levee improvements particularly at the Centralia-Chehalis Airport, and a flood retention dam in Pe Ell which is planned to limit catastrophic damage from 100-year floods within the Chehalis River Basin.

Healthcare

The first known hospital in the city was built in 1903 within the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District. Four years later, the St. Helens Hospital was constructed as a site to treat elderly and poor citizens. The wood building was razed after the 1927 concrete build of a new and expanded St. Helens Hospital. The care center was expanded again in 1952 and a nursing home annex was added in 1964. Another expansion in 1970 included such additions as a surgery center and pharmacy but by the mid-1970s, the hospital was reported as struggling financially. The site became of use as a detox and addiction recovery center run by American Behavioral Health Systems. Chehalis is served by Centralia's 128-bed, non-profit Providence Centralia Hospital for short-term

acute care Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acce ...

that also provides services for surgery, cancer,

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a su ...

, and is equipped with a 24-hour emergency room and an ICU. There are several

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

s in Chehalis, including Providence Chehalis Family Medicine, Northwest Pediatric Care, and Chehalis Children's Clinic. Mental health services are provided by Cascade Mental Health Care. The Lewis County Public Health & Social Services building is located in the government district of the city, north of the Lewis County Courthouse. Military veterans were able to procure health services at the Lewis County Community-Based Outpatient Clinic located in the Lewis County Mall but the facilities were closed in 2021 due to patient expenses that were considered the highest in the nation for a Veteran's Administration (VA) clinic. Patients have since been directed to an Olympia VA clinic and additional local health services have been provided by a mobile medical unit overseen by the Seattle-based VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

Transportation

Chehalis is served by

, the main north–south freeway in Western Washington, which connects the city to Seattle and Portland. The freeway also carries a section of U.S. Route 12, an east–west highway that continues to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and across the Cascades to the

Yakima River Valley The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington (state), Washington state, named for the indigenous Yakama Nation, Yakama people. Lewis and Clark mention in their journals that the Sahaptin, Chin-nâm ...

and Tri-Cities. Chehalis is the location of the eastern cessation point of State Route 6, a highway that travels west to a junction with

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

. The Chehalis terminus converts into West Main Street with access to the city through the government district. Four other bridges provide direct access to the city district. Chamber of Commerce Way connects to the city shopping center and heads over a 1951 railroad overpass and to the original arterial highway before the interstate was built. The West Side Bridge (West Bridge) accommodates traffic into the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District and a route towards downtown. An overpass, referred to as the 13th Street Bridge, provides a connection to the South Market district, Recreation Park, and the Green Hill School. The Labree Road Bridge, built in 2007, provides an access route for the Port of Chehalis. Twin Transit provides public transit service to Chehalis and neighboring Centralia, with connections to other communities. Early 20th century public transportation for residents relied on a

streetcar line A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segment ...

operated by the local Twin City Railroad Company, which connected the city with neighboring Centralia. As the community began to favor travel by bus, the service was discontinued by 1929. The Chehalis–Centralia Airport (CLS) is located within the city limits. The airport is a single runway, public use hub for air travel in Lewis County. First begun as a small airfield in 1927, it is bordered by the local shopping district and I-5 and is approximately one mile west of the Chehalis downtown district. It is the largest of the three airports within the county.

Railroads

The earliest connection for Chehalis to new railroads in the region was in 1873 when the first depot in the area was erected in Newaukum. A local resident paid a conductor to stop in Saundersville, eventually leading to the build of a warehouse depot in the town that became Chehalis. A standard train station was completed in 1883, replaced in 1912 by a depot that became the Lewis County Historical Society and Museum. Economic conditions improved drastically in the city, leading to a large build-up of the downtown core. Competing railroads, attempting to connect Chehalis to the Pacific coast, begin around 1890. A rail company, the Pacific, Chehalis & Eastern, operated a line to Sea Haven; funded by prominent residents, the venture failed by 1891. A freight railroad that led to South Bend was operated by the Northern Pacific Railway Company and became successful after full operations began in 1893. Passenger service began on the line and provided the city with an increase in local shopping. The passenger trains began to decrease during the Great Depression and ceased by 1954 due to competition with automobile travel. Chehalis, in 1916, began being served by a short rail line operated by the Cowlitz, Chehalis, & Cascade Railroad. The line transported milk from local dairy farms to condensing plants in the city and provided lumber from surrounding timberlands to sawmills and woodworking producers in Chehalis. Other railroads in the city include the Chehalis Western Railroad, a portion of which became part of the Chehalis–Centralia Railroad after the line was sold.

Utilities

Communications

The first telephone operations in Chehalis began in 1891 when the city was connected to the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company in Centralia. An official exchange began in 1893 and connection availability for the entirety of the community was completed in 1898, which included 35 total subscribers. The company, then serving approximately 1,000 customers in the Twin Cities, was renamed in 1916 to the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. By the mid-1960s, the area was served by Pacific Northwest Bell and had a subscriber list of over 12,000 between Centralia and Chehalis.

Electricity

Lewis County PUD provides electricity within the city, 75% that is generated via

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

. Natural gas and infrastructure for residents and businesses within the city limits is provided by

Puget Sound Energy Puget Sound Energy, Inc. (PSE) is an energy utility company based in the U.S. state of Washington that provides electrical power and natural gas to the Puget Sound region. The utility serves electricity to more than 1.2 million customers in I ...

Renewable energy

Chehalis received grants of $4.45 million in 2021 to build the first hydrogen fueling station in Washington state; it is to be initially overseen by Twin Transit. The site, scheduled for completion in mid-2023, is located in the southern portion of the city on Port of Chehalis property off I-5 and is planned to operate on of the plat and be capable for usage of up to 2 megawatts. The self-service facility will have two fuel pressure stations, light-duty and heavy duty, of 700 and 350-bar fuel pressure, respectively. The city installed its first

charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a power supply electrical device, device that supplies electrical power for recharging plug-in electric vehicles (including batter ...

s for electric vehicles in 2018 at a shopping center on city-owned land. The station originally had four stalls and was later expanded through legislation from the city government. Chehalis is part of a broader initiative to provide charging stations along the White Pass Scenic Byway.

Sanitation

, Chehalis residents obtain garbage collection services, required by city ordinance, with Harold LeMay Enterprises.

Water

The City of Chehalis Water Division is responsible for clean drinking water, including water treatment and operations, and maintains reservoirs and tanks for a storage capacity of over 6.7 million gallons. The primary source for water is the North Fork of the Newaukum River, which the city is allowed to draw, as of 2023, two-thousand acre feet per year (3.1 million gallons per day). The Chehalis River is a secondary source, with the city allowed to siphon 1 million gallons daily.

Flouridation Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to Public water supply, public water supplies to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water maintains fluoride levels effective for cavity prevention, achieved naturally or through supplem ...

of the water supply began in 1951. In the 21st century, water-use efficiency programs, required by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), reached a goal to reduce water use by 25,000 gallons daily and introduced an additional goal of a 3% reduction during summer. Based on a 2024 water system plan, also required by DOH, Chehalis oversees of water lines, supplying per minute to 3,800 connections. With new water lines built in the southern portion of the city limits in 2023 and 2024, the city has adequate water supply until 2040. , the city's water treatment facilities, built in 1961, provide 4.8 million gallons of water per day and is expected to be of sufficient use until 2036.

Sister city

Chehalis has been a

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

with Inasa, Shizuoka, Japan since 1990. It merged into the city of

Hamamatsu is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, with a population density of over the t ...

, which continues the relationship. Chehalis is considered a twin city with adjacent Centralia.

Notable people

* Don G. Abel, Washington state supreme court justice * Brad Baker, motorcyclist and 2013 AMA Grand National Championship winner * Ernst Bechly, American surveyor and map maker * Kay Bell, football player and professional wrestler * Morgan Christen, United States federal appellate judge *

Robert MacArthur Crawford Robert MacArthur Crawford (July 27, 1899 – March 12, 1961) is known for writing The U.S. Air Force (song), ''The U.S. Air Force'' song. He was born in Dawson City, Yukon, and spent his childhood in Fairbanks, Alaska. He graduated high school ...

, composer and musician * Henry C. Davis, Washington state pioneer and businessman * Richard DeBolt, member of

Washington House of Representatives The Washington House of Representatives is the lower house of the Washington State Legislature, and along with the Washington State Senate makes up the legislature of the U.S. state of Washington. It is composed of 98 Representatives from 49 ...

, 1997-2021 * Dave Dowling, former starting pitcher in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

* Frank Everett, Washington state pioneer and businessman * Judianne Fotheringill, 1963 and 1964 pair skating U.S. national champion *

Dave Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

and Vean Gregg, professional baseball players * Bill Markham, member of the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

* Olive McKean, Bronze medalist swimmer at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

* Seton I. Miller, Oscar winner in 1941 for Best Screenplay *

Andy Olson Andy Olson (born November 6, 1952) is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Oregon. He served in the Oregon House of Representatives for District 15, representing parts of Linn and Benton counties, including the city of Albany. Ols ...

, American football player and coach * Nathan Overbay, former

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

player * Brock Peterson, former Major League Baseball player * Ralph Rivers, first

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from Alaska * Wilma Rosbach, member of the

, 1979-1983 * Ross Shafer, comedian and host of Almost Live! * Lewis D. Scherer, college football player and coach, early 20th century * Elmer Schwartz, professional football player in the 1930s * Mike Skinner, former

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...

driver * Orin Smith, former CEO of Starbucks * Harry Hudson Swofford, Washington state legislator * Warren A. Taylor, first Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives *

Ralph Towner Ralph Towner (born March 1, 1940) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet and French horn. Biography Towner was born i ...

, acoustic guitarist * Albert E. Tozier, founder of the Chehalis Nugget newspaper * Harry R. Truman, 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption folk hero * William Muir Urquhart, Chehalis pioneer and businessman * Thomas Westendorf, American songwriter, composer, and educator

Notes

References

External links

City of Chehalis website

Experience Chehalis website
{{authority control Cities in Washington (state) Cities in Lewis County, Washington County seats in Washington (state) Washington (state) placenames of Native American origin